


Lunch with Mighty Spark

by SteveDuck



Series: Travels with The Pilot [2]
Category: One Piece, Steven Universe (Cartoon), Toriko (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Bit More Shipping, Canon-Typical Violence, Dimension Travel, F/M, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2020-08-11 09:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 18,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20151286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveDuck/pseuds/SteveDuck
Summary: Priyanka and Doug have agreed to meet Mighty Spark, the predecessor, tutor and guardian of the Pilot, for lunch. They know next to nothing about him, but they need to find out fast to discover what sort of person their daughter's safety has been entrusted to.Perhaps they will realize Connie handles the dangers of other worlds better than they expect. Perhaps they won't be the only ones to notice.But before all that, Garnet's getting married! What could go wrong?





	1. Wedding Shenanigans

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for keeping up with me! If this is the first of my works you have seen I suggest going back and reading "Supper with the Pilot" before reading this one.
> 
> Warnings for Chapter 1: A brief trauma flashback across paragraphs 8 and 9.

The weeks after Pilot had met Connie’s parents had been hectic as they had been dangerous. It all started nicely enough, when Sapphire and Ruby had both been found they were united with little difficulty, bar the requirement of a cowboy adventure. When they came back to each other they decided not to immediately fuse and instead do so at a wedding.

The Pilot had obviously come to the wedding when he had been invited. After the vows and the reappearance of Garnet there had been a reception. Amethyst, at the buffet table, lowered the snacks and decorative foliage she was making some unholy mix and match out of and grinned. “Yo fly boy! I never thought I’d see you in a dinner suit.”

The Pilot was wearing a classic dinner suit except those areas classically white were his signature neon blue, the circular nodes from his warp suit were visible on the backs of his hands with strips of a black conductive material connecting them to others concealed by his attire. He had a pair of sunglasses propped on top of his head, he had wanted something like a mask to cover up the marks on his face but Axia had talked him out of it. Pilot laughed and put on an over exaggerated air of self-importance. “A gentleman can dress for any occasion. How about you?” He gestured at her comparatively formal outfit.

She shrugged. “Eh, it’s Garnet’s big day I suppose everyone’s looking their best for it. Anyway, I think Ste-man would’ve had a fit if I hadn’t put a little effort into my clothes, he’s been planning this biz for weeks!”

“Or all his life.” He muttered with a smile as he glanced over all the care and planning the boy had clearly put into this wedding.

Amethysts eyes looked past Pilot and widened. “Hey! Bismuth! Have you met Pilot yet?”

In her usual investigative way, Bismuth leaned over and looked over the many intriguing features. “So, you’re the Pilot’s… Grandson?”

The Pilot didn’t respond his eyes widened in panic as he wrenched himself free, he saw no gem before him, but a large, gray skinned Kelmep. Backing away he reached behind him without thinking about it towards the cutlery table where some facet of his mind still remembered knives were present. 

Instead of a blade’s handle he instead found a reassuring hand and a gentle voice quietly speaking into his ear. “He isn’t here, he’s gone, we will keep you safe just take a deep breath.” Garnet had been the only person in his adult life Pilot had fully explained his tragic past to and she had kept an eye out for him since.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. On opening them he noticed the rainbow hair and the concerned, if a little confused face. “You okay buddy?”

“I’m fine.” He nodded. As he tried to recover from the shock he only gave short answer is to any questions put before him but after a little while he was back to his usual self, even making jokes.

“It’s a shame you didn’t bring your helmet,” Amethyst said at one point. “It feels like you’re leaving out Axi.”

“Axi?” Bismuth queried.

The Pilot smiled and tapped the top of his sunglasses. The blue wavy line appeared across the lenses. “it’s a pleasure to meet you Bismuth.” Axia said warmly. “And while I’m at it, congratulations on your getting married Garnet.”

“So you’re a talking set of eye protection?”

Axia laughed. “No, no! I am a sentient combat and tactics suite on board the Pilot’s ship. I also perform some amount of manufacture, which I hear is your area of expertise.”

Bismuth put a fist to her chest with pride. “You heard right! It’s my major Bismuth! Take this armor for example…”

Pilot suppressed his urge to roll his eyes, outside of chemical process and jiggly pokery, construction largely bored him. Garnet had made her way out of the conversation once she was sure he was all right, so she could attend to the other duties she had as the happy couple. Pilot looked towards Amethyst and realized that the conversation had started to go over her head as well, so, as subtly as possible he placed his sunglasses on top of a decorative bouquet and slinked off with the purple quartz.

Pilot looked down at his friend and saw she was still chewing on a piece of plastic foliage and laughed to himself.

“What’s so funny?” She responded.

“Oh nothing, just enjoying the adventures of the living garbage disposal.” He joked.

Amethyst laughed out loud at this description. “These leaves are nothing! I don’t think there’s anything I can’t eat!”

“How about drink?”

“I don’t see how much difference it would make? Why do you ask?”

“I bet you your next lunch that I can drink something you can’t.”

She didn’t even wait for details. “You’re on!”

With a grin he pulled out an empty can of sugar shock shut down and ran down to the ocean, half filling the can with seawater. He muttered to himself. “Suspended ions and free radicals…”

“Dude, I drink seawater all the time! You’re gonna have to try harder than that!”

Ignoring her Pilot moved over to the dessert table and picked up a little blue and red meringue before crushing it into the can. “Glucose for chemical energy…” Followed by a few slices of banana from the fruit salad. “Radiation…” He picked up a discarded chicken bone stuck it through the hole and stirred the strange mixture before discarding the bone again. “Calcium catalyst…”

He came back to Amethyst who had prepared two cups at the drinks table. “What are you even making?”

Pilot grasped the can between his hands. “Spaceship fuel.” He closed his eyes as a small crowd gathered around them. “Just need to expose it to warp energy.” As he removed his hand blue light shone brightly from the hole in the top of the can. “Pour me a glass of something would you sweetie.”

“Oh of course dear!” Amethyst responded mockingly as she filled a cup with orange juice. The Pilot put a generous splash of the glowing liquid into the orange juice which began spinning like a whirlpool without fully coalescing causing bands of orange and blue to remain starkly disparate from each other. “Trippy!”

“Fun fact, if I didn’t drink this, this drink would keep spinning like that until after the sun had exploded. Too bad I’m never gonna prove that.” And with that the Pilot drained the entire glass in one go. A blue light sheened across his eyes for a split second and he lurched forward about a foot at warp speed with a neon blue light around him, in a short moment he was as he normally was.

“Now me!” The little gem exclaimed.

Pilot looked around him to make sure that Axi was still firmly on the bouquet unable to see what he was doing before he poured a glass of orange juice for his friend. He slipped in a tiny amount of the fuel, although still enough to give any organic creature who had not spent much time exposed to an infinite pool of warp energy kidney failure. “So, if you proof or throw up it’s not my fault and I win the bet.”

“Yeah sure whatever, gimme!” She chugged the swirling drink and stood very still for a moment.

Pilot looked to the small crowd and cautiously announced, “You may want to stand back.”

First Amethyst’s eyes flickered blue as she giggled occasionally, the light then became constant and she started laughing hysterically. In a gout of blue flames she took off like a rocket, laughing like a madman. Having been taken by surprise, the Pilot could not move out of the way in time and was carried off as well, the two of them soaring in the air like a firework. At the point to they reached the top of the lighthouse the flames dissipated and they both started to fall.

The Pilot grabbed the gem and started to slow the dissent, holes burst through his fancy clothes as the nodes he had on his body started to work. They landed on the beach some meters away from the party.

Everybody turned to the cloud of sand as it settled. “Amethyst! Pilot!” Steven yelled as he ran towards them.

Amethyst turned her head towards her partner in crime and quietly asked, “You all right dude?” The Pilot started laughing in response. Taking the laughter as an all clear, the gem sat bolt upright with both arms in the air and shouted, “Undefeated! I get a free lunch!”

The Pilot didn’t even care about the bet anymore, that had been awesome. “Are you alright? Can you sit up?” Said a voice that was distinctly not well known to Pilot.

Instead of opening his eyes he decided to make the personal challenge of determining which Beach Cityite was talking to him. “I’m fine, thank you… Jenny?”

As Pilot opened his eyes his heart almost stopped spinning. The person above him, who was clearly preparing to perform first aid before he opened his eyes, did look a lot like the girl he had met occasionally when hanging out with Stevonnie, same skin tone, same general facial features, but her build was slightly more athletic and her hair was more wild and uncontrolled, juxtaposing perfectly with the kind and calming aura he felt from her. He couldn’t help but think how beautiful she looked in the setting sun, the thought disturbed him slightly, even her voice disarmed him. “Kiki. You’ve met my sister then?”

“A couple of times.” He was blushing. Why was he blushing? “What’s wrong?”

“Your pulse feels weird.”

“Well my heart doesn’t really beat. It spins and pulls the fiber of my being around my body.” He noticed that she was blushing. “Great I’ve weirded her out.” He thought. “Well this can’t get any worse.” They turned to see a small commotion as Bismuth awkwardly shuffled her way through the crowd gently holding the Pilot’s sunglasses. “Apparently it can.”

“Pilot! What ever happened! I’m checking of vitals!” Axia barked. Reluctantly he took the sunglasses from the gem and propped them on top of his head as he sat up. “Not too fast! All right. Nothing broken, breathing unobstructed, a few bruises in the morning but nothing seriously wrong.”

“Okay, crisis averted, sorry everyone.” Being quite used to the unusual, most of the party-goers went back to the festivities.

“Wait a moment.” The AI said. “Your heart RPM is above average and your conceptual balance seems to be over-saturated with-“ she noticed that her pilots wrist was being held by a human girl. In a much more calm and motherly tone she cooed. “Oh Pilot aren’t you going to introduce me to your little friend.”

Silently mortified he decided that maturity was the only way to get the program that had raised him off his back. “This is Kiki.”

“Kiki…?”

“Pizza, ma’am.” The girl replied, surprising herself with how unperturbed she was introducing herself to a pair of sunglasses.

“Oh, call me Axia dear. But anyway, thank you for coming to my pilot’s aid. Please do call us if you need anything.”

“All right, what’s your number.” Kiki asked taking her phone out. With a slight shrug Pilot removed the sunglasses from his head and gently tapped them on the top of the phone. A string of illegible jargon appeared in the box where a number would be typed and the usual box asking if she would like to save the new contact popped up. With slight trepidation she pressed yes and looked up at the gray skinned boy before her. “What should I save you as?”

“Pilot.” He replied. “With a smiley face!” He forced a laugh, internally chastising himself for such a stupid joke.

She tapped in the new contact and put her phone away. Axi cleared her throat. “Pilot? Could you hand me back to Bismuth? She and I have something important to show Amethyst.”

Bismuth showed some confusion as she took back the glasses. “We do?”

The pair watched the gems head back to the party. the Pilot awkwardly turned to look to Kiki. “So… What do you want to do?”


	2. Setting off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day has come that Priyanka and Doug had agreed to meet Mighty Spark for lunch. Despite (or perhaps because of) the events on Homeworld, everyone still wants to go. So now it is time to set off to another dimension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The events on Homeworld happened in a similar manner to the show's cannon up until the ball where just after Stevonnie's appearance White Diamond's pearl appeared and declared that White had crowned herself soul matriarch of the gem empire and that the other diamond's were to present themselves to be shattered.
> 
> Not wanting to directly confront her, the group, diamonds included, planed to escape back to earth on Pink's ship and formulate a new plan. Going outside they found that White had formed the entire diamond mecha (back on earth Bismuth had seen the Diamond ships vanish after being struck by beams of white light billowing black vapor).
> 
> Fortunately, Pilot, who had had misgivings about the whole thing, had tailed Pink's ship in his own and was thus able to take them home. On the way back Yellow and Blue tried to blame Stevonnie for White's sudden change in attitude. When that fell through they were subjected to Stevonnie berating them for their mistreatment of Pink (similar to what Steven said to Blue in Pink's tower in cannon). These words and having just experienced the emotional stress needed to make them flee their home cased them both to drop the fusion issue and Blue to admit Steven is better of on Earth, much to Yellow's horror.
> 
> The only other difference is that Lars and his Crew are not due to return to Earth for a couple of months.

The past few weeks with all its joys and dangers had made Steven and Connie incredulous, separately incredulous and unaware of each other’s incredulity. No matter how many times they tried, something always popped up that prevented one from telling the other their feelings.

Just before the sleepover ended Connie thought she might sneak downstairs and tell Steven the truth when Pearl had come bursting in exclaiming that she had located Sapphire. The next time they met was when they were planning Garnet’s wedding but every time Steven got up the courage to speak privately with his friend and confess someone would show up asking for clarification on this or that. At the wedding reception Steven and Connie found each other together when a slow dance was starting but before either could say anything their attention was drawn away by a certain Gem and Kelmep being launched into the sky.

Eventually the commotion died down from that event and Connie saw her chance. This time she was determined she would tell her friend how she felt about him, and nothing could stop her even if both her parents were standing over her as she said it, even if a horde of monsters were to turn up, she would tell him just as soon as Garnet was done talking to him. She had not been counting on the Diamonds. There was plenty of time to talk on the ship, but both felt that talking about such things within earshot of two unfamiliar, unstable and suddenly overprotective gem matriarchs was not a good idea and as soon as they had arrived on homeworld everyone was scrambling in all directions to save Steven and get back to earth again.

In the end they had to leave behind the spaceship of Steven’s mother and they all had to squeeze into the Pilot’s ship which, although roomier than its size suggested, was clearly not built for two titanic exiled Diamonds.

About a week later Steven and Connie were resting with their backs to one of the many boulders on the beach, it was pretty close to the place Connie had been reading on that day Steven had saved her. “Are you ready for this Steven? I’m sure we could do this another day in light of all that’s happened.”

The boy shook his head. “I’m okay if you are, besides I think it’s a good journey to make, Mighty Spark never seems worried about anything we tell him. Although I am glad it’s over.”

“So am I, I completely freaked out when that Pearl took you away. I thought I’d, we’d lost you forever, my heart felt like it would,” Connie realized there was only one way this conversation could go now so she screwed up her courage inside her, “Steven I think I’m-“

“You ready to go guys?” The Pilot beamed as he hopped over the rock, he glanced at the girl’s face. “Did I, interrupt something?”

“Nothing important.” Her tone did not convince him. “We’re ready to go if you are.”

Going around the corner of the rocks the kids saw the gems sorting through the piles of equipment Connie’s parents had requested the Pilot show he had on the ship to prove he was competent whilst the Diamonds were squatting over the ship trying to figure out how they had actually gotten inside during their escape.

Not one to be put off by being exiled from her own planet Yellow Diamond sneered at the little not human as he approached his ship, “I still don’t understand your intention of taking Pink with you on this… Craft.”

The Pilot barely looked up. “We’re visiting a friend.” He replied curtly.

Blue went down on one knee. “But why can’t we come with?”

Pilot, appreciating her trying against millennia of privilege to treat him as more of an equal tried his best to make his response understanding. “Well it was hard enough transporting you in my ship last time, your size is a bit too conspicuous as well.”

Standing, her face took on a flash of inspiration. “If my height is the only problem then I could fix that.” Her body began to glow and in warbling light it began to contract and shrink down. “There we go, problem solved.”

Many individuals present held back the urge to laugh, she was still about twice as large as the average human and her body was essentially comprised of her gem with her head, arms and skirt sticking out at a smaller than usual size. Trying to remain serious the Pilot shook his head. “I’m sorry but I’m afraid that form isn’t humanoid enough for my perception filters to cover.”

Priyanka raised an eyebrow. “Perception filters?”

“They’re special clothes that make non-humans look like humans.” Her daughter explained.

Blue, having returned to her usual size, seemed very agitated, seeing this Pilot shuffled through a small pile of electronics he brought out before taking out what looked like a CD player attached to a toaster and a gramophone by wiring and rubber bands along with an earpiece of some sort. “You can talk to Steven with this.” He handed the earpiece to Steven. “But there’ll also be some gems guarding him along with one of the best swordsmen humanity has to offer.” He gestured to Connie.

“Which gems?” Blue asked.

“And where is her sword?” Yellow added.

“It’s nice when questions have the same answer. I have no idea!”

At that moment Pearl came running from the partially reconstructed beach house with something in her hand. She ran up and handed the object to her pupil. “I’m afraid this is the best sword I could find on short notice.”

Connie drew the blade from its leather sheath, it was a single edged saber with a black hilt, its size was actually more appropriate for Connie’s frame than Rose’s sword had been. “Thanks Pearl.”

“Ah! That’s one problem answered, as for the other. Hmm…” He put his thumb and forefinger to his chin. “Well I do owe you a lunch, ey Amethyst?”

“Lunch? I’m in!” Amethyst declared half way through putting stuff back on the ship.

“And let’s have at least one more, how about-“

“Peridot.” Yellow demanded.

The Pilot displayed a quizzical look on his helmet and suspiciously he asked, “Why?”

“All these other gems have been have been rebels for centuries, hopefully this peridot still remembers how to treat a Diamond.”

“Peridot, you alright with that?”

The small gem who was at that moment sticking her tongue out behind her former Diamonds back stood up straight for a moment before forcing a more relaxed pose and shrugging.

“All right then, you guys know the drill, perception filters are in the wardrobe. Any style will do.”

The two invited gems climbed into the ship before climbing out again a few minutes later. Amethyst was wearing a purple cravat of sorts whilst Peridot had somehow managed to squeeze a white baseball cap with green detail over her otherwise rigid hair. “They don’t look much different to me.” Doug observed.

“Did you expect gems to walk in and humans to walk out. You know what a gem is in your brain ‘she is a gem’ is a perfectly rational answer to the question ‘what is she?’ If it wasn’t you’d see them as something else. Something you could understand. Unless they start doing something threatening.”

“Why?”

“Survival instincts notice the threat and break the filter.”

“Are you ready to go yet?” Priyanka asked as she headed towards the ship.

The Pilot held his finger in a circle and looked through it, turning his head every few moments. “Yes I think that’s about it but we won’t be flying in, a ship appearing out of nowhere might draw attention, we will enter by a secluded area and then bring the ship in by dimensional entanglement, judging by where I think we are getting out at it shouldn’t be too long of a flight to get there, is that all right?”

“I suppose.”

“All right, let’s go!” He unfurled a finger and the portal opened on the beach.


	3. Gourmet Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Doug and Priyanka's first journey into another dimension and their first stop is the hub for the hungry, a meal metropolis, Gourmet Town, the Bellyfull City! (Toriko anyone?). But it's not time for lunch yet! There is still some traveling left to do and they need to get out of the city to bring the ship in undetected. There may be some time to sight see first though.

The parents had been expecting a Vista of some aesthetic beauty they were however greeted with what appeared to be a rather run-of-the-mill alleyway. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but it was the only secluded spot I could find.” Pilot started walking towards the portal whilst looking back. “Who has the backpack?”

“I do!” Steven replied brandishing his sandwich shaped bag.

“Good. It’s actually a really appropriate desi-“ The Pilot tripped over the rim of the portal and landed on his face. Standing up he shook his head. “Every time! This is why I hate instantaneous travel. Come along!”

The party going out each stepped through the portal with basically no problem. After waving goodbye to those who had stayed behind Pilot closed his fist in the direction of the portal it shrunk until it was a pinpoint of light on the ground, “I can only make a single portal per day but I can manipulate the size of portals I’ve already made quite easily, now I just need to hide it.” He looked around until he saw an empty take-out box on a bin he picked it up and placed it on the glowing point. “Maximum effort.” He grunted with exaggerated exertion.

The group walked through the alleyway with Pilot navigating they soon came out to what seems to be a square in the city, every building seemed to be a restaurant or café of sorts or shops selling extremely high-quality ingredients or cookware, even the vending machines seem to have food that would not look out of place in a five star restaurant. “What is this place?” Doug inquired.

“Gourmet town, the bellyfull city!” Pilot announced. “If you’re looking for somewhere to cook or to eat this is where you stop.” The group took in the sights surrounding them until they realized the Pilot was still walking. “Not us though! We’re going somewhere better, Bar Meria may be farther away but Meria is better than any chef here, except Granny Setsu and her opening times are unreliable at best.”

From her scant few outings with Steven’s guardians Priyanka was aware that gems tended to get glances from strangers, as the group went through the streets she realized that the two with her didn’t seem to be getting any. A few people however were looking at their guide with curiosity, the doctor leaned over and whispered, “Pilot, did you remember to wear one of those perception things?”

“Hm? Oh right.” Pilot lifted the visor of his helmet briefly and pointed to a square swatch of adhesive gauze before lowering the visor again. “It makes me look human but it’s not going to hide this get up, a guy in a spacesuit is strange but it’s not going to usurp your understanding of reality.”

Peridot cleared her throat. “So what is this ‘Bar Meria’ we are going to?”

“Since it is run by one of the best chefs around, I’m guessing it’s like a restaurant or something.” Amethyst replied.

“Eating?” The green gem responded. “Disgusting.”

Pilot laughed sympathetically. “Don’t let the locals hear you say that! This world’s slightly obsessed with food, as you may have noticed.” When the joke didn’t catch on he apologized. “Sorry Peridot I should’ve thought this through better. What if I give you something to study?”

“Like what?”

“Well, there’s plenty of diverse plants and animals in this universe.” He produced a small notepad and pencil and handed them to her. “Make a note if anything you see of interest.”

“Wow, thanks.” She replied dryly. As they turned the corner they saw a large market square selling meats, fish, fruits and vegetables. Despite her original reluctance Peridot tugged on Pilot’s arm. “I want to stop for a moment and look at this… Fish?”

The Pilot looked to the rest of the group for approval and nodded, Peridot half ran down to what seemed to be a huge fish with crab claws in the place of fins, the gem started scrawling notes and crude diagrams in her notepad. After a while of this the proprietor of the stall came over. “Are you fine individuals looking to buy anything today?” His tone was friendly but Pilot could sense impatience underneath.

The Pilot took out a small white card. “Peter Iolet, IGO, head of education.” 

The fish salesman looked at the card, other merchants gathered behind him in curiosity. “I’m not in trouble am I,” he asked apologetically. “I assure you all my goods are up to standard.”

Pilot patted him on the shoulder, “I’m sure they are, my assistant lecturer here is gathering data for her next lecture to the gourmet hunters of tomorrow. We want them to know what a good pincer fish looks like, we will be sure to credit you of course.”

Much happier the vendor went over to Peridot and started answering her questions. Priyanka glanced at the card. “It’s blank.”

“Tiny perception filter.” Its owner whispered. “You see what the owner suggests you see. Very useful since otherwise you’d have to print off new licenses and permits for every universe you went to.”

As they spoke another vendor approached Peridot. “Are you just looking for data on fish ma’am? I was thinking you may want to make some notes on this!” He stepped over to his rather large stall and pulled off a cloth cover.

“Is that… A dragon?!” Connie exclaimed.

“An underbite Dragon!” The salesman replied proudly. “Capture level four!”

Peridot started making notes. Doug stepped forward. “Capture level? What does that mean?”

The meat vendor raised an eyebrow. “You’re in the IGO’s education department and don’t know what to capture level is?”

“I’m not part of it myself. I’m just security.” Doug was surprised that he had managed to cover himself that well.

Satisfied with the answer the man nodded. “All right, fair enough, essentially capture level determines how hard it is to get a particular ingredient. To give a sense of scale if it’s entirely due to a creatures physical threat a creature with a capture level of one usually requires about 10 IGO hunters to handle it, this fellow required about 40.” He nodded towards the deceased Dragon.

“IGO hunters aren’t actually that powerful,” Pilot whispered to Doug from behind his back. “Connie could probably take one of those down easily.” He looked up at the sun and called out. “All right we better be going! We’ll be late otherwise!”

As the party left the market Pilot walked ahead with Connie’s parents on either side. “Do you really think that Connie could fight a dragon?” Her father asked quietly.

“Well an underbite Dragon isn’t particularly mobile, it has several blind spots and his attacks are fairly sluggish the only thing going for it is its bite force and I doubt it could land the bite on Connie before she could land a slash on it. Not that I would encourage her to fight one, I think that her actually slaying a living thing would be upsetting for everyone involved, that’s why Pearl has been teaching her light cut and back of the sword techniques.”

“So, she doesn’t fight while she’s out here with you?” Priyanka inquired.

“Unless it’s against robots or something, we usually just run unless someone needs our help, she actually lands some quite impressive kicks when she wants to. Ah, the checkpoint!”

The checkpoint went smoothly with the Pilot using his little white card to get the seven of them through. Once out of the city they traveled down the main road for a while before making a sharp left into the neighboring wild fields. After a short walk to behind a hill that obscured their view of the city the Pilot stopped. “You should take a step back.” Steven suggested to his friend’s parents.

The Pilot held out his hand and made a motion as if he was pulling on an invisible rope. Almost immediately Steven’s earpiece crackled into life and Yellow Diamond’s voice echoed through. “Pink! The ship is disappearing!”

“That’s all right.” The boy replied. “It’s meant to do that.” As he spoke the craft faded into existence in front of them. The rear door opened for them.


	4. A Short Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang are flying to Bar Meria. On the way Doug and Priyanka have a chance to investigate the ship, and learn a bit about Connie.

The interior of the ship was decorated in a similar style to the outside, it was however quite a bit larger than the ship’s exterior suggested, there was a door on either side of the room along with a hatch on the ceiling and floor. In front of them was a wide window that had not been visible from the outside. There was a desk with wiring and chemical reactions all over it along with a half-eaten sandwich.

“Where are the seatbelts? Where are the seats?” Priyanka asked.

“The interior is set in a dimensional gyroscope it would take some serious turbulence to shake us in here.” The Pilot explained as he made his way to the front of the ship.

Doug investigated the area. “There aren’t any controls.”

“Why don’t you press that button behind you?”

“There isn’t a-” Doug turned and a holographic circle with what appeared to be a doorbell on it hovered in the air, cautiously he pressed it and somewhere beneath him a strange engine whirred into life.

The Pilot reached slightly above him where a lever materialized to meet his grasp, with a short pull the door they had entered by closed behind them. “Are we ready for takeoff?” Everybody nodded.

“Flight response recorded, flight conditions acceptable, ETA in 30 minutes.”

“And for those of us with a conceptual mindset Axi?”

“We’ll be there in time for lunch Pilot.”

With that the Pilot turned a valve and pulled up on a pair of levers. The ship rose into the air and rocketed forwards. Once the ship was in a stable flight path the Pilot turned to his passengers. “You can look around if you like.”

A little polyhedral maintenance drone came out of the wall. “I can show you around.” They recognized Axia’s voice.

Doug went up to one of the doors. “What’s through here?”

“What are you looking for?” The panel next to the door listed a myriad of rooms. “You can press an option or ask me.”

“There’s a training room on board?”

“Multiple, whose do you want to see?” The panel listed a few options with tick boxes; Pilot, Steven, Connie and Pearl, there were other names present as well but none which Doug recognized.

Doug turned to his daughter, who is currently looking out of the ships window. “You have a training room here?”

“Axia took a few measurements of Steven and I one time and said we had training rooms if we needed them.”

“Who are these other people?” Priyanka asked. “Ignis, Ryu, Stevonnie…”

On hearing their fusion’s name Steven and Connie’s hearts were in their mouths’. “They’re some friends of mine,” Pilot answered coolly. “They use my training facility sometimes, I should really introduce some of them to you at some point.” He gave the kids a subtle look.

Doug filled in the tick boxes next to the names of Pilot, Steven and his daughter each chosen individual got a colored stripe over their name, blue, pink and green respectively, he then pressed confirm and the door opened.

Parts of the room seemed like conventional gym there were weights labeled with color, the lightest were green and the heaviest were pink. There were a few treadmills with tiny colored stickers to suggest appropriate settings, blue was the highest. Around the room was a pair of what seemed to be obstacle courses, a relatively simple one marked with a green and pink band around the starting post and a far more complicated one with moving platforms and vertical obstacles marked with a blue band, there was also a small arena and a target range both marked with all three colors along with a series of machines and areas the functions of which Doug and Priyanka could not quite fathom.

Priyanka walked over and picked up one of the green weights, although it was not a challenge for her to lift she thought that it would be a struggle for a girl her daughter’s age. “Is this really the correct weight for Connie?”

The drone hovered over to her and produced a holographic diagram of the young swordsman with a variety of numbers surrounding it. “Operating a large sword with dexterity requires upper body strength.” Axia explained. “I’ve taken biomeasurements of your daughter and determined this weight to be the ideal in order to challenge her without risking injury. Your daughter is strong.”

Holding the weight in her hand Priyanka felt her perception of her daughter shift. She knew that Connie was a good swordsman, Pearl had told her such, but she had always felt that her daughter was in some way vulnerable. She had imagined that on missions she had largely been tagging along for the experience more than actually helping. She now felt that she understood her daughter to be more capable as a part of the Crystal Gems than she had given her credit for.

Just then Connie came up. “Steven and I wanted to try out the obstacle course, can we mom?”

Her mother gently glanced at the safety mats and railings before nodding. “Sure honey, but not too much, you don’t want to be sweaty at lunch.”

“This ship is equipped with showers.” Axia mentioned.

“And we have spare sets of clothes in the backpack!” Steven yelled across the room.

“Oh all right then.”

For most of the trip the parents watched Steven and their daughter run their way through the hurdles, climbing walls and tunnels. At one point Priyanka went over to the door on the other side of the bridge to investigate the showers, each shower was equipped with its own private changing room and cubicle, there was a large black towel in each. “Who designs all these rooms?” The doctor asked the drone that had followed her in.

“I design most of them, the Pilot has some input however. This room used to be two communal changing rooms which led to showers, he suggested we change to this design for increased privacy.”

The Pilot’s voice buzzed over the intercom. “If you guys would like to wrap up your workout and hit the showers, we will be landing in a few minutes.”

After Connie and Steven had showered and changed they came up to the bridge and saw they were flying over the familiar forest, the trees didn’t have many leaves, but the branches locked together to form a woven canopy. The trees started to thin out and soon they saw it. “The black lake.” Pilot announced as he set them down. “And in the middle Bar Meria!”


	5. Mighty Spark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven, Connie, Pilot and the others have arrived at the black lake, in the middle is Bar Meria, where they are to meet with Mighty Spark, Pilot's predecessor and teacher. They are mere meters away from their destination, still close enough for something to go wrong before they arrive.

The lake itself was opaquely dark as its name suggested, despite the strange color life seemed abundant, dragonflies, butterflies and unique insects flitted between giant lily pads that covered the lake. In the center of the black lake was a small island on which was built a single story wooden building, its outward decor didn’t look fancy by any means, but it did seem friendly, more friendly at least than the surrounding woodlands.

As he got out of the ship with the others and closed the door behind him the Pilot craned his neck to the sky. “It’s so good to be out of the city!” He exclaimed. “It’s places like here that really push you!”

Amethyst pointed her thumb towards the distant restaurant. “So, fly boy, how we getting over there?”

“The old man said he’d get us a lily pad when we arrived, he would’ve heard the ship landing, it shouldn’t take them too long.”

The gem groaned in annoyance. “But we’re so close! I can almost smell it!” She eyed one of the oversized water plants nearby. “Why don’t we just get one ourselves!” With that she leapt onto the lily pad.

“Amethyst wait!” Pilot called out too late, as the quartz’s feet touched the plants frond it rose up into the air with a serpentine body covered in kelp like hair. two pupilless yellow eyes glared up at their prey as a many fanged maw opened up beneath them. “It’s a pondweed snake.” Pilot’s voice was more annoyed than concerned. Amethyst drew her whip from her gem and swatted to the creature’s mouth shut allowing her to slide down its body and rejoin her friends. The Pilot turned back to the kids. “Connie! You and Steven protect your parents, we will take care of this.”

The serpent bared down on Amethyst and the Pilot and the two dodged out of the way as it came crashing down. It locked eyes with what it considered to be the vulnerable party only to be taken out of his predatory focus by a whip to the left and a flurry of kicks and punches to the right. To escape the assault, it raised its head up out of range, from there it attempted to repeat strikes in the style it had begun with but Amethyst’s arcing whip defined a clear zone of no access. With it outside of his friend’s effective attack range but still not backing down the kelmep attempted to end the stalemate throwing clusters of miniature flash bangs towards its face, in response the beast elegantly wove out of their way.

Keen to end the fight and secretly embarrassed at his failure to hit the large target before him the Pilot got increasingly impatient, “back off already! You know we aren’t worth this much effort!” He yelled hurling fistfuls of dazzling explosives almost blindly in his frustration. Suddenly a few of the flash bangs circled back, with a loud crack and a flash of light they struck the creature in the back, believing he was being attacked from both sides the creature dove under the water and fled. “Wait, what happened?”

“It was an exceedingly simple strategy against that brute.” Peridot stated with a grin. She levitated a flashbang around her finger to show off.

“That was brilliant!” Pilot exclaimed, taking the explosive. “We make a pretty good team. High fives all around?” He received a high five each from the gems but lowered his hand upon realizing that Connie’s parents had just gotten over the shock, “sorry about that, I did mention that sometimes we have to defend ourselves.”

“I thought you said there weren’t any dangerous animals in this part of the forest.” Priyanka said, hand to her chest as her fear started turning into caution.

“I said there wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle, you wanted an honest view of the dangers involved, that was a fairly moderate amount of danger and I think we handled that pretty well.” Pilot examined the flashbang, found some imperceptible flaw and casually tossed it over his shoulder into the lake where it exploded with a moderate splash.

The doctor was about to respond when she saw a figure exit the restaurant in the center of the lake and confidently walk towards the water’s edge. “Who is that? It looks like he’s about to swim the lake! Sir! Stop! The lake is full of monsters!” She yelled to him.

“That’s what I’m counting on!” The man boomed back cheerily as he stepped onto the water surface. His foot did not sink instead he slid rather calmly across the water like a pond skater, as he grew closer they could see that a man was large and well muscled, he was wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts, on his feet he wore blue flip-flops. He seemed to wear a permanent smile of contentment, stretching his otherwise almost perfectly square trimmed facial hair which showed the same accents of age as did the black and gray hair on his head and the beginnings of wrinkles on his broad, squarish face.

“That’s Mighty Spark!” Exclaimed Connie.

“What took you so long old man?” Pilot called out. “If you hadn’t noticed we were under attack just now!”

“Of course, I noticed! You did adequately!” Just as he spoke he skated to the side slightly. From the spot where he would have been standing otherwise another pondweed serpent rocketed out of the water, jaws agape. Amethyst raised her whip in preparation for another fight, but Pilot put a hand on her shoulder to signal that it would not be necessary.  
The creature wheeled around to make a second strike on its target noticing too late who it had chosen as prey. As it made an attempt to escape, Mighty Spark grabbed it by its kelp like hair, it’s writhing and wriggling only made a slight ripple beneath his feet. He drew his free hand into a fist and struck the creature in the gut. A low moan crossed the lake and the serpent was slumped over its captor’s shoulder. The old man continued towards the group now carrying the dazed beast.

“Show off.” Pilot muttered as his predecessor reached the shore.

As the large man let go of the snake it made a move to escape, he glared at it briefly and it froze. “Watch your manners upstart.” He said in mock anger at his apprentice. He looked over the rest of the group. “Steven and Connie! Good to see you again. Why were you so far back in the fight?”

“We were protecting my parents.”

“Oh really? Pilot, for how careless you can be you really are overprotective sometimes.” He directed his attention to the gems. “I had been expecting Garnet, but let me see, you must be Amethyst and you are… Peridot!” he got nods and smiles of confirmation in return. “And you must be the young swordswoman’s parents, I can see where she gets it from!” He shook both firmly by the hand.

As Doug took back is well shaken hand he replied, “It is a pleasure to meet the Pilots guardian. I’m sorry but what does she get from us?”

He looked up, remembering the swordsmen he had known in his youth, good and bad. “Any fool can swing a pointy bit of metal around and call themselves a swordsman, the truly great practitioners of swordplay have a rare balance of intuition and analytical judgment, I think you two probably instilled her with that long before she could toddle, let alone pick up a sword.” He gestures towards the lily pad. “shall we?”

The Pilot almost immediately stepped on followed by the gems, Doug and Priyanka required quite a bit of assurance before they to get on themselves let alone allow the children to board. Eventually everyone was stood on the lily pad (except for Mighty Spark who skated beside it) and they began to cross the lake.

“So,” the old man started, “I was hoping Garnet would come with you, so I could apologize for not being able to attend her wedding, I had a present and everything, it’s at my house. How did it go anyway?”

As they explained the events of the wedding and the events that came after Mighty Spark’s smile hardly dithered, he had burst out laughing at the point where Amethyst and Pilot had caused trouble with the spaceship fuel, almost as hard as he did at the end when they mentioned cramming the diamonds into a ship far too small for them. 

The closest he came to a frown was the look of understanding and care he gave as Connie described seeing yellow step on her best friend, he had however followed this up with a chuckle. “You standing here just goes to show how tough you are, eh Steven!” followed by a boisterous laugh. One of the old man’s great gifts was the ability to turn bad experiences into lessons or jokes depending on how severe it had been and how long ago the event was.


	6. Bar Meria

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is finally time for lunch! Bar Meria seems like a decent restaurant and, aside from its location, seems quite normal. Priyanka and Doug are going to see for the first time the oddities other worlds can hide even in mundane places like this. While Mighty Spark has already passed his old title to Pilot, he still tests his old apprentice, even now. Will Pilot's wits be up to the task?

As they approached the island, Mighty Spark turned to Amethyst. “You may want to put your weapon away, you don’t want to break the perception filter.” The gem followed his suggestion.

As they stepped off, the beast fled to the other side of the lake as fast as it could muster. Standing in the door was a feminine figure, but despite the black hair, purple dress and apron, the mechanical eyes and lack of mouth showed that she was clearly a robot, “Hey Meria!” the Pilot called out.

The machine nodded.

“You didn’t mention Meria was a bipedal robanoid.” Peridot stated with some interest.

“Meria isn’t actually here, she is just a normal human.” Pilot explained. “She operates through a robot so she can run a restaurant out here without fear of the local wildlife.”

“But why is she out here? Wouldn’t she get more customers if she was in the city?” Priyanka asked.

“Maybe. But a lot of wealthy people want somewhere to have a good meal outside of the public eye.”

“Like who?” Steven asked.

“Oh, you know, celebrities, terrorists, criminals, government types, that sort.” The Pilot listed quickly

“Wait what?” Priyanka exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, Bar Meria is neutral ground. If someone causes trouble, I throw them in the lake!” Mighty Spark grinned.

After the group sat at a table and ordered their food Mighty Spark lent back in his chair. “It would be rude to fight in here so let’s see how your eyes are nowadays kid.” He pointed towards a man at another table, he was blonde with a white suit, scars crisscrossed his skin all over. “Tell me about him. Steven and Connie can help if they like.”

The Pilot, who had removed his helmet on coming in, put his finger on his lip. “Well he’s a decent swordsman.”

“Because of the scars?” Steven asked quietly.

“And his sword?” Connie added.

“You’re right but I fear for the wrong reasons, let’s start with the sword, as we’ve mentioned anyone can carry a sword, and a fancy sword could simply be a badge of office so what tells us he knows how to use it?”

Connie thought for a moment. “His hand is resting on the scabbard.”

“And the scabbard is resting on his knee.” The Pilot finished. “He is ready for battle at a moment’s notice yet he is relaxed enough that we can deem that he isn’t paranoid enough to believe it is likely, therefore a sharp warriors instinct is a likely explanation. Now for the scars, scars are a result of one’s defenses failing, anyone who finds themselves fighting can run the risk of getting scars. One shouldn’t equate a multitude of scars to one being a skilled combatant, usually the opposite is true, not in this situation though, judging by the age of the scars they were all attained at about the same time, looking at his apparent age and familiarity with what is clearly at least partially a combative organization, gourmet mafia if I’m not mistaken, I would say that he is only had a single significant loss in his entire adult life, most likely against someone armed with explosives.”

“Are you sure about that?” Mighty Spark, who had until now simply been nodding to the explanation, asked.

“The scars have vibratory breaks in them, he was clearly hit by the shock wave of a large explosion.”

“So you’re saying that he was close enough to an explosion to have his skin torn apart by the shockwave yet the shrapnel missed him, not even a fragment of bomb casing, he has no sign of burns either. There is luck boy, and then there are miracles. No, those are the marks of someone who survived a short ranged sonic attack, soundwaves shook his skin open. Otherwise a rather sound observation, well done.”

Soon the food arrived and beside questions of training and current events the conversation died down. Despite the food being burgers, salad, pasta and other run-of-the-mill fare, it was made to an incredible standard and Connie’s parents all but forgot the concerns they had come in with.

When they had finished Mighty Spark paid for all their meals (apart from Amethyst’s who Pilot paid for to settle their bet) and they headed out. Meria had brought out a largeish rowboat while they had been eating and all but the Pilot’s guardian stepped in. As he skated alongside the vessel ensuring that the creatures of the lake gave them a wide berth he smiled. “You know, a few nights after Garnet’s wedding Axia called me, I told her not to ruin the stories for today, but she did tell me about your meeting someone so…” The Pilot, knowing where this was going, only groaned. “Who’s this Pizza girl?”

“Just a human from Beach City I met at Garnet’s wedding, she’s cool I guess.”

“Typical teenager response, am I right?” He chuckled glancing at the parents. “Look, you don’t come around very often, so I just want you to know,”

“I know.”

“That if there’s anything you want to talk to this old man about,”

“I get the picture.”

“And from the records I’ve read it is perfectly acceptable in most circles for humans and kelmep to-“

“I get it! It’s fine! Thank you!”

The old man gave a bold, energetic laugh in response as they reached the shore where the ship had been left. as they boarded Mighty Spark caught Pilot’s eye. “Could you stop around my house so that I can get that present I mentioned? You can stay and chat if you’d like.”

“I’d quite like that,” Priyanka mentioned. “I still have some questions.”


	7. A Tough Childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang has come to Mighty Spark's house to pick up Garnet's present. With Pilot and the kids momentarily occupied, Priyanka is free to let fly with her questions to Mighty Spark. Answers she wants and answers she'll get!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning For This Chapter: slight reference to childhood abuse on paragraph 20. Otherwise nothing exceptionally bad.

The group headed off for the small clearing in which the former Pilot built his abode, it was a large single-story cabin which although structurally stable and somewhat neat looking was clearly built by someone who did not practice construction as their primary profession. As the ship landed and the group made their way into his home they saw that the rather plain outside of Mighty Spark’s cabin was made up for by the wealth of decoration he bore inside, trinkets and furniture many of which clearly out of place in that world brought vibrancy to the wooden room, jars and wooden chests were neatly positioned on the walls and shelves of the main living area.

The house’s owner walked over to a table and picked up a large bottle of a deep reddish liquid with a blue and red ribbon and held it out to Steven. “Garnet likes food and drink sometimes, right?”

Pilot rushed over and snatched the gift out of his predecessor’s hands. “I don’t think you should give that to Steven, especially since humans from his universe never invented al-“

“look at the label.”

The Pilot glanced down, the label read, “Star Plum Punch. 0% Alcohol!” He sheepishly handed the bottle to Steven.

“It was good of you to check, tell her if she wants to try wine she can come visit, I can congratulate her in person then.” Mighty Spark glanced to Connie’s parents and understood they would like some privacy to ask their questions. “Whatever happened to Rose’s sword?” He asked their daughter.

“Blue diamond broke it when we were fighting her, I guess Bismuth will fix it or make me a new one at some point, but I have this one for now.” She gestured to the saber on her back.

“Well when she does you might want to sharpen it with this.” He reached into a small chest and brought out a flat, golden piece of stone.

“A Melk whetstone!” Pilot exclaimed.

“It can sharpen any blade almost to perfection, the dust that comes off of it also makes a good seasoning for savory food as it happens, Melk stardust. Do you know how to sharpen a blade?”

“Not really, Pearl usually does it for me.”

The old man took out a collection of slightly dull kitchen knives and gently wrapped them in a cloth. “Kid, could you take Steven and Connie outside and show them how it’s done, you can put Garnet’s present on the ship for now Steven.”

The two children headed outside, Pilot’s hand hovered over the bundle of knives for a moment before he picked them up and followed the children out.

Mighty Spark closed the door behind them. “Will they be safe out there?” Doug asked.

“No predator comes within a mile of my house, they’ve all learned the hard way that I’m not worth the effort, now what do you want to ask?”

They all sat down, Doug and Priyanka on a sofa, the gems on a cushioned bench whilst Mighty Spark turned around a dining chair to face them. “Pilot is a nice enough person,” Priyanka began. “But we don’t really know much about him. Essentially what I want to know is do you think that he is mature and responsible enough that we should trust in Connie’s safety when he takes her on adventures.”

Mighty Spark was silent for a few moments before he spoke. “As far as responsibility goes I would say yes, he is capable and smart enough to know what the people he brings with him can handle and he would sooner put himself in mortal danger than risk his friends come to harm, I entrust him with the multiverse and he is yet to fail me. When it comes to maturity I’d say he’s very mature for his age but in truth he’s quite young indeed. Younger than your daughter in many ways.”

“He looks like he’s in his late teens.”

“Axia and I estimate him to be about 17 but kelmep can live to be about 900. Their bodies grow to adulthood at about the same speed as us, but it takes about a century for their minds to catch up usually.”

“Then why is he so mature?”

For the first time since they met him they saw him frown, it was a bit a mixture of low mood and a suppressed rage. “When young kelmep are subjected to a traumatizing event something in them… lets go, their minds are forced into adulthood to allow them to survive, but they never get their childhood back, not really. I think he tries to make up for it by being immature when he can afford to be.”

“What happened to him?” Doug asked.

“Well to start with he was taken from his mother at birth by some noble family, he doesn’t even know her name or why they took him in, it certainly wasn’t out of love, they seemed to hate him for existing, then the world ended. What happened to him in the weeks between the apocalypse and our finding him is not mine to say, I promised him I’d keep it a secret, suffice it to say that when I landed on that dead world I found him crying in the middle of one of the most horrible scenes I have witnessed in my life.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “I… I’m sorry, it’s just good to see him doing something other than trying to prove himself to me, I’m glad he has fun with you guys.”

“If you aren’t trying to measure his capabilities why are you making him do your dangerous job?” Peridot asked.

“I’m not. When he was about eight he asked to be my apprentice, I thought I’d humour him for a while since it was the first act of self-confidence that I’d witnessed from him.” He sighed. “But, as fate would have it, he took after everything I taught him like an expert, I tried putting him through more daunting tasks to blunt his desires, but he just went after them even harder. One time I told him that I was going to teach him how to survive being thrown off a cliff in an attempt to get him to back down, I had to hold him back from jumping off the edge himself. Eventually I decided that if I couldn’t discourage him from doing something dangerous I was going to have to teach him how to do it properly, by the age of 15 I ran out of excuses not to name him as the new Pilot, so I retired. I still have Axia keeping an eye on him.”

“What’s so great about being the Pilot anyway.” The gem responded.

“I think for him it’s the chance to do good, fix problems he finds around the multiverse, that sort of thing.”

“Does that also involve smashing people stuff?”

Mighty Spark looked at her for a moment, perplexed before realizing what she meant. “Are you referring to that drill he crashed into? He called me about that once, he was quite upset about the whole business. He wanted to rebuild it for you but he said you wouldn’t give him the blueprints.”

“I thought he was trying to steal our designs.” She responded meekly.

At that point Pilot entered.


	8. It Finally Happens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven and Connie have been left outside, alone together. But this can't be a lasting opportunity, the multiverse has been keeping their feelings inside for the past month. Almost as if the destiny didn't want them to be together, or maybe it was nudging them to this moment. 
> 
> Connie is no great believer in fate, but her heart knows an opportunity when it sees one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: If you find romantic fluff distasteful this isn't the chapter for you.

Although the Pilot had told them to take a break Connie continued to try and sharpen the blades against the whetstone. “Pilot said you could stop.” Steven reminded her.

“I want to get this right Steven, what if we found ourselves somewhere like the jungle moon again and I couldn’t protect you properly because my sword was blunt? I’d hardly deserve to be your knight.”

“I’m your knight as well! We have plenty of time to learn, and I know you’ll get it!”

She gave him an appreciative smile, not for the first time touched by his honesty and caring heart. She worked on finishing off the knife she had started on, not only because she hated seeing a job half done but also because she hoped that the precise, yet repetitive task would drive away the thoughts that had recently started to intrude whenever she was alone with Steven. Counter her to plans the task seemed to focus the words she wanted to say in her mind until she could bear it no longer. 

Trying to remain composed she placed the blade to her side and lent backwards, hope and fear wrestled within her. “Steven, I think it’s more than just being there to fight alongside you. Do you remember when we first fused?”

“Yeah! That was a really fun night. Except for Kevin.” He chuckled, trying to lessen the awkwardness of that particular facet of the memory.

“How does being Stevonnie… Feel to you?”

“Being Stevonnie is great! I always have a lot of fun when it’s us, alone together.”

“Do you ever feel like there’s something left unsaid?”

“Unsaid? I suppose the parts of a fusion don’t know everything about each other when they fuse but I guess that’s kind of a good thing.”

“Well, there’s something I feel was left unsaid and I want to say it. Steven I-“

Connie’s teeth clenched shut as she heard the door of the cabin behind them slam open, she held back the urge to use every bad word she was remotely aware of to curse whoever had trespassed on her moment. The Pilot lent over them. “Can I borrow that earpiece for a moment Steven?”

“Uh? Sure?” He handed the small device over and Pilot quickly strode up back into the building and closed the door behind him.

With all the emotions writhing inside of her and the multiverse’s seeming aversion to giving her any chance of a shot at happiness Connie could only fight herself for a few moments before, rather unexpectedly to the boy sitting next to her, drawing her knees up to her chest and crying.

“Connie what’s wrong!” He briefly considered going up to the house to get help from his friend’s parents, but the blinds had been lowered and Steven did not want to leave the girl he cared so much about alone like this.

“Nothing, I’m just stupid!” She sobbed. “I’m just stupid and can’t do anything right!”

“That isn’t true! You’re one of the smartest people I know! You know all about science and wilderness survival and books and boats and, and,”

“Why did you even choose to hang out with me after you returned my bracelet?”

“Because I like you! You’re clever, you’re funny, you listen, and you don’t treat me like an alien just because my mom was. I didn’t realize how apart from humanity I was until we became friends. On that night we first fused and you took us to that dance you gave me my first feeling of what being a human is like.”

Her tears having all but passed she was surprised. “I took you? No, you took us, I could never have attended something like that by myself, I’d have been too scared to go. Do you think Stevonnie gives us what we need to discover what makes us happy?”

“I guess.” He smiled, glad to see Connie starting to feel better.

He shuffled back to give his friend room to escape from her confined position, to his surprise she began to slowly crawl towards him. She gave one more glance to ensure that the blinds were indeed drawn and there were no spies watching them before she leapt upon him, heedless of consequence.

They lay back on the grass, tears of joy coalesced in their eyes. “I love you.” Stevonnie whispered to the wind.


	9. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stevonnie and Connie's parents are mere meters from each other. There meeting is practically unavoidable. How will the Maheswarans react to their daughters secret fusion? And more importantly, how will the fusion react to being found out, with all eyes on them? Stevonnie has love in their heart, friends beside them, and, in truth, friends in Doug and Priyanka, if all stays calm and rational...

The Pilot opened the cabin door before hastily closing it again. After a short deliberation with himself he gestured for everybody stand back he then poked his head around the door and yelled out. “You know, if you’re going to be so blasé about it I feel sort of released from my promise. I mean honestly, what’s the worst they’re going to do?”

Stevonnie, roused from their joy rather rudely quickly stood up and frantically gestured in the negative.

“Who are you talking to?” Mighty Spark asked his apprentice.

Part of the Pilot felt ridiculous for using the functionally extinct kelmepi language for such a trivial purpose but he whispered a few syllables in the language. “Tou ahi labakir.” which roughly translated to “They fused.”

“They did what!” He yelled, having mistranslated.

“The implication in labakir is on the ba not the la.” He sighed.

“Oh. Well that’s perfect.” He pushed past his apprentice and swung open the door. “Hello there Stevonnie! What’s with that face?”

Connie’s parents went to follow him out when the Pilot slammed the door in their face. “Pilot, who’s Stevonnie?” Priyanka demanded, angry at his apparent noncooperation.

“Isn’t that the name of one of the people who use your training room.” Doug mentioned.

“Yes, but I just want to straighten something out before you met them.”

Priyanka looked him straight in the eye, even with the helmet between them it was chilling. “Are they a danger to Steven or my daughter?”

“No.” He squeeked.

“Then I don’t see how anything about them could faze me after the past few weeks.”

With a slightly frightened nod he let them pass.

The experience of having Connie’s parents stare at them would have at one point being enough to split them apart, but Stevonnie felt a new strength within them so they merely stood, as calm and as resolute as they could muster, ready to stand up to the yelling and yell back in their defense.

Amethyst and Pilot stood themselves beside the fusion ready to defend their right to exist if the need arose. Mighty Spark and Peridot were confused, neither understanding that Stevonnie’s existence was meant to be a secret. Doug and Priyanka were somewhere between nervousness and being completely dumbstruck.

For a while all parties were silent before Mighty Spark cleared his throat. “Perhaps introductions are in order. This,” he held out a muscular arm to the new arrival. “Is Stevonnie, the fusion of Steven and Connie, any questions?”

“Connie can fuse with Steven?” Doug asked, more trying to buy time for himself to assemble the situation than genuinely asking.

Mighty Spark gave the fusion a look up and down before turning back. “I do believe so, yes.”

“Is it safe?” Priyanka asked.

“Fusing?” Pilot responded. “All it is is the expression of the bond between two people, dangerous relationship, dangerous fusion, good relationship, good fusion.” He shrugged to Stevonnie at this last part.

Stevonnie started to feel annoyed and upset, people were talking about them instead of talking to them. “I exist! I’m sorry for not introducing myself earlier. But I’m not going to apologize for being me, Steven and Connie like being me, and I’m not going to stand here, having you try to find things wrong with me! It’s like none of you think I have any feelings!”

Before this moment Connie’s parents had been thinking of the fusion as a strange concept or activity that their daughter performed but the very human hurt in Stevonnie’s outburst made them a person. “I’m sorry Stevonnie,” Priyanka said. “It’s just that I don’t know anything about you.”

“You know Connie, you know Steven, I’m sort of just both of them.”

“So which one is talking right now?” Doug asked.

“Both sort of. It’s not like Connie is controlling my left arm and Steven’s controlling my right, my personality is a combination of theirs, like my body is.”

Priyanka stepped up to the fusion, finding it odd having to look up to them. “Tell me then Stevonnie,” She requested gently. “What are we, Doug and I.”

“Genetically your grandparents. Or your aunt and uncle.” Pilot pointed out with a slight smirk.

Priyanka started to laugh despite herself. “I think I prefer aunt, I don’t think I can stand being called grandma yet!”

Suddenly Stevonnie reached out their arms and embraced Doug and Priyanka as tears started streaming. “I’m sorry, it’s just I’ve wanted to meet you for so long, I love you!”

Connie’s parents, without even having to look at each other, brought up their arms and met the fusion’s embrace. “It’s all right,” Doug replied. “We love you too Stevonnie.”

Pilot folded his arms with pride for how the situation had been handled. He even let Mighty Spark’s hand rest on his shoulder for a few moments before wrestling out of the hold to maintain his show of independence. When the fusion released their parents, Pilot perked up with realization. “Now that I think about it, it’s rather fortunate for you to show up. That is, if you feel willing to stay for a while?”

Stevonnie gave a quick glance to their parents before giving a decisive nod. “I think I’d like to do that. Why?”

“Well the old man has only gone and forgotten he had promised to meet an old friend today. Well, I say friend. He might have schematics for one of the most well-made swords in the multiverse, but it might be a bit dangerous. Nothing we can’t handle though. I thought we should come along with him and you can pass as adult enough to not raise too much suspicion.”

“Are we all right to do that?” Stevonnie asked their half mother.

Priyanka gave a brief grimace of apprehension before firmly folding her arms and directing her piercing gaze to Mighty Spark. “As long as you protect them.”

“Of course! They’ll protect you, and I’ll protect them, mostly.” He held his arm out and flexed his wrist in a circle. “I mean there’s a line between watching their back and holding them back isn’t there!” He opened his hand and a portal appeared before him.


	10. Gloomy Island and the Papersmith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang has passed through a portal to Gloomy Island (One Piece anyone?) with hopes to find the schematics for a great sword from the island's master. On the way to the legendary swordsman's abode, Pilot gives an explanation of conceptual alignment and conceptual manipulation, two cornerstones of kelmepi culture.

Through the portal was a moonlit night shining over the ruins of some forgotten fortification, fog banks rolling over the crumbling wall and ancient defenses. In the distance, on a hill silhouetted against the moon, was a castle. “That’s Gloomy Island, and that castle is where we’re headed!” Mighty Spark explained as he stepped through the portal, followed by everyone else.

As the Pilot stepped through the haft of a large axe lodged in a wall above the portal snapped and the blunt end landed on his head. “Chorus dammit!” He nonchalantly responded as he rubbed his helmet.

“Do you always hurt yourself when you go through one of those things?” Peridot asked with a smirk as the group began their way out of the ruins.

“He’s conceptually aligned to vehicles,” the old man explained. “Instantaneous transport doesn’t agree with him.”

“Seriously? But that doesn’t make sense!” She exclaimed.

“Not to a gem I suppose.” Pilot conceded. “Think of it like this, how would you go about uh…” He looked around before snatching a small hand axe from a rotted beam. “How would you go about making a better axe than this?”

After getting over the initial flinch caused by having a weapon pointed at her, Peridot took the axe and turned it over in her hands, it was incredibly worn and old, with a rusted blade, she doubted it could cut anything. “That would be easy, first I would draw up some schematics and acquire materials, then I would have Bismuth handle manufacture.”

“So you would rely on heavy materials to give your axe weight and then have a craftsman render it sharp in order to give it sharpness?”

“Of course I would!” The gem yelled in frustration. “Things can’t have sharpness without being sharp and things need to weigh something to have weight!”

Pilot laughed gently. “Do they now? When I was younger I knew a papersmith.”

“A what?” Stevonnie questioned.

“A papersmith, she would take a few sheaves of paper and fold in the concepts of weight, sharpness, peace, and construction in order to make a hatchet that would cut down trees but never cut a person, it worked better than one of iron and it was made almost entirely out of paper, with a few clips here and there.”

“That’s impossible, how do you ‘fold in’ a concept?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t a papersmith. Sometimes she’d draw on what she made, sometimes she’d sing to it.”

“What was her name?” Stevonnie asked.

“Meygareath.” He smiled sadly, as the name held a great weight in his memory.

“What happened to her? Did she die from the disease?”

He shook his head. “I doubt it. She didn’t seem to be suffering from it when I lost track of her, and it seemed to mostly affect people who-“ he stopped himself, looked at the fusion’s face and then to the gray sky above. “When many kelmep got together, they could sing to change the world around them, conceivably if enough assembled they could change their world entirely, as long as they were united in their goal. It figures that the first time that happened it was used to do something terrible. It was the kelmep who sang that song who suffered most from the plague, and it was their ruined minds that doomed the rest of us. The song continued without them and the universe was slowly torn apart.”  
For a while they were all silent as they picked their way through the maze of decrepit stone work. In many parts the walls were still so high that they blocked the view of their destination. In many places the fog and ruins worked together to generate passages of total darkness where the gems lit the way.

In a particularly long instance of these passages Mighty Spark had the group stop, he knocked on the wall to his right, caught some of the rock dust that fell from the ceiling and tasted it. With a nod he took a step further along the passageway before punching a hole in the right-hand wall. Silvery moonlight streamed through the hole as the dust settled and they saw through to an open plain and then the castle in the distance.

Compared to the oppressive twists and turns of the fortress the site was hopeful. “Didn’t you mention once that some of your kind escaped?” Doug said watching over the landscape.

“I certainly did,” Pilot replied, already walking. “As the universe fell apart rifts to other universes began to split open and I heard many Kelmep from more isolated places got through, now it’s just a matter of figuring out which universes those rifts led to. That’s what brought me to your universe in the first place.”


	11. Humandrills Decend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gloomy Island seems quiet, a place who's days of thunder are behind it. The truth is, however, that the violence hasn't ended it has merely shifted out of human hands. when you can't talk or reason with your enemies it may be time to run!

The plain was less aesthetically pleasing to walk through than it had been to behold from the ruins. At Priyanka’s asking, Mighty Spark had estimated the castle to be less than an hour away, but the mist made it hard to keep track of landmarks making the journey feel longer than it was. The ground, though patched over with weeds and fibrous grasses appeared to have been churned as if by the feet of thousands. Occasionally they would come across a half-buried axe or sword, some of which were of incredible size, all of them were rusted and worn by ages past. 

Stevonnie found themselves thinking that their location was likely similar to the strawberry battlefields before they had recovered from the gem war. “Who fought here?” They asked.

“An ancient tribe of humans.” Pilot answered.

“What were they fighting?”

“Another ancient tribe of humans.”

The mental image of gallantry and justice began to fade from Stevonnie’s mind. “Why?”

Pilot shrugged his shoulders. “No important reason, but it claimed the life of every human that called this island home.”

“How terrible!” Priyanka exclaimed.

“The worst part is how bad of an influence they were.”

“Who were they a bad influence on?” The fusion asked. 

Before he could answer he heard something and tensed. Having also sensed it Stevonnie turned back and materialized their shield as they stepped past the gems who had been behind them. Almost as soon as they had taken this stance a large axe, ancient and weathered but still sharp, struck their shield and bounced off.

“We may want to run.” Pilot suggested. They ran the way they had been going as a raised ridge had appeared through the mist, they were pursued by a rain of axes, swords and other weaponry. Stevonnie held their enlarged shield behind their head as they ran so as to cover themselves and their parents, Peridot waved her arms frantically trying to push the metal away (and though she was not capable enough to accurately manipulate every weapon at once she did unknowingly push many blades off their mark). The only one who seemed to lack urgency was Mighty Spark who seemed to merrily jog along to keep pace with the group occasionally warping to a new position to avoid a spear or such.

They all jumped or clambered over the ridge into what seemed to be a trench. Before he entered Mighty Spark turned back and held out his hands to either side. He slammed his hands together with a boom like thunder as a shockwave tore its way over the ancient battlefield. As it crossed over into the obscuring fog some thought they could hear a great many animalistic cries of distress.

As he followed his friends into the trench and bent down he whispered, “That should keep them off our backs for a bit. Which way Pilot?” Pilot pointed left along the trench. “Good call. The trench should keep us from being seen or our smell from spreading but we should keep talking to a minimum until we are a little closer to our destination.”

Following his advice they crept their way along the trench which began to make a left turn after about five minutes, meaning that they began to head in the correct direction. After about 10 minutes the trench sloped up and they came out again on to the battlefield.

Feeling somewhat safer Doug risked a whisper. “Pilot? I thought you said there wasn’t anything you couldn’t handle here.”

“And I stand by that Doug, I just don’t feel like beating up a bunch of innocent creatures.”

“Innocent?” Stevonnie questioned. “Then why were they throwing weapons at us?”

“Well if the last humans you saw tore down your forest to make siege engines and hunted you for combat training what would you do when you saw another bunch rock up?”

“What are they?”

“I have no idea what the natives called them, but later scholars named them humandrills, apes with the fabulous ability to perfectly imitate anything they’ve witnessed. Show them a farm, they become the world’s greatest farmers, show them a war and, well, that happens. The person we are off to meet trains with them sometimes, but I don’t like the idea of fighting them here, we’re too easily surrounded.”

Eventually the group found themselves at the foot of the hill on which the great Gothic castle stood. Surrounding the base of the hill was a wall, tall and ancient but still strong. They stood at an opening in the wall where a grand gate, now reduced to rotted splinters, once stood. 

“Who did you say lived here?” Priyanka asked.

“Dracule Mihawk.” Mighty Spark responded. “Also known as Hawkeye Mihawk, he is known as this world’s greatest living swordsman.”

“Really!” Gasped Stevonnie. “I have so much to ask him!”

The Pilot laughed. “You might want to keep your Connie under control there, bud. He’s also known to be profoundly bored and have a massive thorn in his butt about swordsmanship. Anyone who can’t at least provide a resistance to him in a sword fight isn’t worth his time, or his mercy. There are stories of him cutting battleships in half because they disturbed his sleep.”

“Then why are we seeing him just for schematics?”

Before anyone could answer Stevonnie’s question a cacophony of hoots and wails erupted from the forest. “Son of a biscuit.” Pilot muttered.

“Mihawk will never dig up those schematics while humandrills infest his castle.” The old man stated, although his tone was more matter-of-fact than distressed.

“Well that settles it,” The Pilot chimed. “Some of us have to stay here and block the gate whilst the rest of us go see old Hawkface!”

“I could probably hold them off.” Mighty Spark noted.

“Yes, but you are the only one who’s powerful enough to make him listen.”

“Guys! They’re coming!” Amethyst pointed out into the dispersing fog and trees as many humanoid figures approached. They were large, even the smallest they could see was a good foot taller than Stevonnie, their faces were long, and the teeth were large, giving them a baboon like appearance. Many of them wore old and ill-fitting armor over their gray fur, all of them were armed.

“That settles it!” Pilot rubbed his hands together as if describing some long thought out strategy. “Amethyst, Stevonnie, you two will hold the gate, let none pass. Remember you’re trying to make them flee not to destroy them. If you find yourself in need of assistance call me on this.” He took out the earpiece, turned a knob on it with a click and gave it to the fusion. "It's set in the blue channel to talk to me, if you need to speak to anyone at home, that’s the yellow channel. Everybody else, with me!”


	12. Battle at Hawkeye's Gate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stevonnie and Amethyst are about to face a battle against the humandrills, but first Stevonnie faces a battle of heart vs reason. Meanwhile the rest are off to meet the island's master. Mihawk however is in no mood for visitors, not after the last one...

As the bulk of the group hurried to their way up the hill Amethyst summoned her whip. At her side she noticed Stevonnie inspecting the saber Pearl had given Connie. “What’s wrong?”

“This sword was perfect for Connie but it’s basically a knife for me.”

The gem nodded with understanding as she eyed the slowly approaching mob of apes.

“Should I un-fuse?”

Amethyst’s brow raised with surprise. “Do you want to?”

“No!” The fusion said without thinking, realizing their feelings were blocking their reason they tried to explain. “But then you and Steven could make Smoky Quartz and Connie would be fighting with a normal-sized blade.”

She shook her head. “I like being Smoky Quartz but even I can see that you are something special, at Mighty Spark’s house Steven and Connie fused just because they could. Garnet would explain this better, but you should just be the fusion you want to be.”

“I guess I want to be me.”

“Awesome! As for the sword, there are loads of weapons just lying around here, take one! You can put it back after but you should probably hurry, those monkeys will be here soon.”

Just as Amethyst had said the area around them was littered with weapons, including a few swords. As they hurried from sword to sword, Stevonnie found that each one was either too small, too big or aged beyond all use. As they walked back holding a sword that was still too small for them was slightly larger than their original their bare foot touched something that felt like paper, it however didn’t give under their weight.

Looking down they saw what looked like a bastard sword, just right for their size. They picked it up. It was covered in intricate silver and pink patterns, painted all over it, so intricate and tightly packed that one could hardly see the yellowed paper underneath, the handle and guard was much the same except it was blue and pink. Despite it clearly being made of paper, it kept its shape. Stevonnie checked the edges of the blade and found that they were indeed sharp, across the cross guard in fine golden letters was a single word, Meygareath.

“How did a Kelmepi sword find its way here?” They pondered to themselves as they checked its balance.

“Stevonnie, look out!” Stevonnie turned just in time to block an axe wielding humandrill with their new blade. They pushed the axe aside and gave the creature a firm shove to its chest with their shield, a quick flash of the blade and the beast collapsed. Past their fallen foe they saw Amethyst rolling into the ranks approaching. They threw their shield into the fray, knocking away a good group of apes, before summoning a new shield and joining the fight.

Up on a ledge somewhere between the castle doors and the gates the rest of the party had stopped and turned to watch. “Are you sure they’re safe Mr. Spark?” Priyanka reiterated as she had begun to as soon as they were out of earshot.

“Humandrills aren’t that dangerous in the grand scheme of things and rarely go for the kill once they’ve knocked an enemy down, at worst the Pilot and I can be at their aid in less than 30 seconds from here.”

“And don’t forget that Amethyst is with them.” Pilot added.

For a while they watched. Stevonnie and Amethyst held their own well, beating back the tides of ape warriors. Eventually Doug saw no sign of the fusion faltering or tiring anytime soon and was calm enough to broach other questions. “So this is just an abandoned castle isn’t it? This ‘Hawkeye’ doesn’t even exist, right?”

“I assure you that this castle is not abandoned.” A voice said behind them. “And I assure you I am very real.” They turned to see a man, tall and lithe, his clothing was fine with a cloak of dark red, and a board brimmed black hat. His thin face and perfectly trimmed facial hair framed his eyes, orange and piercing with an almost supernatural gleam to them, across his back was a blade as black as night whose length exceeded its master’s height. “You trespass on my island. What have you to say.”

“We did not come to bother you.” Mighty Spark stated. Mihawk was surprised to find not one trace of fear in his voice. 

“You are bothering me.”

“Be that as it may we are simply here to observe the progress of that young swordsman.” He pointed down the hill to where Stevonnie and Amethyst were still fighting.

“So you will leave once the training is over?”

“If that is what you so desire.”

The swordsman sprang over them. “Easily remedied.” He effortlessly drew the great blade from his back.

“Nope.”

“What?”

“Nope.” Pilot repeated. “You’re planning on going down there, with your big sword and dumb hat, and killing my friends for the sake of peace and quiet.”

“Yes, why?”

“There’s something wrong, you rarely go out of your way to attack innocent people and I can tell you’re not thinking straight. You wouldn’t risk your status as a warlord over this.” At warp speed the Pilot drove past Hawkeye before standing in his way. “Either way I’m not letting you through.” His helmet displayed a wide grin before a narrow strip of spacesuit fell off Pilot’s back. “No one saw that.”

“You aren’t going to stop me from killing this insect?”

The old man folded his arms. “You’re welcome to try, he’s not strong enough to defeat you yet but he’s clever enough to know how long he can annoy you before he should run away.”

Mihawk didn’t wait for further explanation, a flurry of sword swings aimed for the young kelmep as he twisted and arched to keep them from striking true. The blade rested in its wielders hand. “My blade’s balance feels off.”

“Excuses, excuses.” Pilot mocked before a shard of his helmet broke cleanly away. Removing the remainder of the helmet he threw it on the ground in mock anger. “Do you know how much ferro-ceramic plates cost to fix? Me neither! But it’s a lot!”

“Another one…”

“Another what?”

“Are you gray skinned creatures going to continue sending your least effective warriors?”

“What did the last one look like.”

“Am I meant to member the face of every worm on my doorstep, she came with most a ridiculous offer, a paper sword in exchange for a kiss.”

Pilot’s face grew grim, none save his predecessor could remember him bearing a look like this. “Did you accept the offer?”

“Of a paper sword? I told her to leave immediately and when she attacked I cut her down.”

“But she didn’t attack with the sword did she? If she had you would’ve kept it, and right now my friend is at the bottom of this hill fending off humandrills with it. How did she attack?”

“With a spear, a black spear.”

Whilst Mighty Spark only stopped smiling and shook his head with pity, his old apprentice’s face flushed black with anger and his voice took on a commanding tone. “When she died you found something amongst her clothes, everything it is telling you and will tell you is a lie. Hand it over so that it can be destroyed, and you can get your life back.”

The offense on Mihawk’s face exceeded the command in the Pilot’s voice. “So! You came here to rob me, none of you will be spared for your crimes! But first,” he gently turned his head to the side where he saw Peridot shifting her arms around and in and a constant attempt to off center the giant sword. “I will cleave this miserable green creature in two.”

“Peridot!” The Pilot rushed to tackle the gem out of the way as she tried to concentrate all her powers to deflect the incoming blade. He wasn’t going to lose anyone today, not to her. Never would she cause them harm while he still drew breath.

As the gem and Kelmep touched a whitish-greenish light enveloped them both and fibrous veins coalesced around Peridot’s gem, in the next moment four arms were held aloft, manipulating ferrokinetic forces. The arms were all connected to the same muted green body, about a head or so taller than Peridot usually was. They appeared to be wearing a black ceramic breastplate from which lines of black tape stretched out to warp pads across the body, behind the visor were set two pairs of eyes. “Nyeh ha! My magnetic powers have stopped you in your tracks!”

Indeed the black blade had stopped descending, the sharp eyes of its owner and the four new eyes traced the length the blade until they saw a hand gripping the back of the blade.

Mighty Spark, the hands owner, seemed to ignore the swordsman as he looked the fusion up and down. “Are you okay kid?”

The fusion hadn’t noticed the change before. “Oh, oh! How in the voice of chorus did this happen? I suppose Pilot’s conceptual form meant that his body could be… uploaded? To Peridot’s gem. You know this supports the Pilot’s theory that Gems are conceptual computers.”

“Except the fact they can count past two!” The old man laughed. “Anyway what should I call you?”

“Well let’s see,” they said, putting one of their hands to their chin. “Normally when the Pilot makes an addition to something you put ‘Warp’ at the front or ‘Pilot variant’ at the end but I don’t know if I count fusion as addition or simply a fundamental change so,”

“I’d rather not hold this sword forever!”

“Warp Peridot!” As it past their lips a great boom was heard from the bottom of the hill, out of the woods trudged a Humandrill of enormous size and bearing three blades not unlike the island’s master, except white steel was used in the place of black. “They can’t fight that.” Warp Peridot gasped.

“Not alone.” Mighty Spark agreed.

The fusion started running down the hill, one hand drew in towards them and a giant axe flew their way, they jumped on and started riding it down like a hoverboard. “Get that black spindle from him old man!”

“Will do, upstart!” At that moment Mihawk drew a short sword from the pendant he had been wearing and attempted to slash Mighty Spark across the chest only to see him rush to the other side of him at blinding speed.

The Humandrills had all retreated and the two defenders had just started to consider heading up the hill themselves to bring tidings of their victory when the last ape had attacked, it seemed to know every move they were about to make before they made it and the dexterity it wielded its blades with matched Stevonnie’s, even with the sword in its mouth, pretty soon they had been backed into a wall with the beast striking furiously at the expanded shield between them, it showed no sign of tiring.

Suddenly an axe slammed into its side. Its eyes widened with surprise, and it was sent flying, the axe was blunt however and no cut was made.

Stevonnie shrunk the shield down to a wieldable size as the pair looked up at the figure standing on the axe. “Peridot?”

“That’s Warp Peridot to you.” They tapped their visor and it grew dark before a familiar blue line appeared across it. Over where they had landed the Humandrill rose. “Right. We have to keep at least two of those blades occupied so that one of us can land the final blow, let’s do this.” With that they flew around the left side of their opponent and began to open and close their upper hands, small flash bangs began to fall into the lower hands, they held one in each and the rest began to orbit the lower arms in thick belts.

Amethyst rolled over to the right-hand side and swung her whip, like before the humandrill cut through it but she persevered summoning new whips and trying new angles.  
On the other side the humandrill was deflecting flashbangs being launched at incredible speeds, Warp Peridot’s fingers flicked like machine guns and the combined assault was joined by Stevonnie attempting to land a hit from the front.

Eventually it made a mistake, Amethyst’s whip found its mark as it wrapped around the right-hand sword and much of the right arm, taking the chance immediately she revved and rolled past and the beast’s arm was pulled backwards as it tried to wrestle free.

Having positioned themselves behind Stevonnie, Warp Peridot slapped one of their free hands against their visor, “why didn’t I think of this before!” They jumped off of and relinquished control over the axe, which their opponent slashed in half with barely a thought, they fired off the remaining flash bangs to little effect and focused all their magnetic power on the various metal accessories the Humandrill bore. After a faint vibration the beast put in the additional strength needed to fight the force leaving Stevonnie starting to buckle under the assault of two swords. “Need to focus.” Powers concentrated on a thick iron bangle on their left wrist. This high concentration of force was too much and the humandrill’s left arm flew backwards. “Now Stevonnie!”

Stevonnie raised their shield, catching the remaining threat on the edge before landing a diagonal slash across the chest. That strike, combined with the forces already acting on its arms sent the Humandrill flying onto its back with a groan. It did not rise again.

Stevonnie saw that while cut, it wasn’t bleeding heavily and it appeared to be breathing. “It will live.” Their fellow fusion affirmed shortly before falling apart in a flash of light.

“Ew, ew, ew!” Cried Peridot. “My first time fusing, and it wasn’t even with another gem! How will I live this down?”

“Peridot! I am so sorry! If I knew that could happen I would’ve been more careful!”

Stevonnie put a hand on their hip. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fusing with a non-gem.”

“Yes, for you maybe, but I don’t want to do the mouth thing with him!”

“What mouth thing?”

“The thing Connie did to Steven before you showed up!”

Amethyst and Pilot perked up at this, gave each other a look and then both smiled deviously. “Oh did she now?” He grinned.

“They-they never!” The fusion stammered turning crimson.

“I suppose as the most ‘mature’ crystal gem it’s up to me to explain the facts of life to you,” Amethyst teased. “When two people love each other very much…”

“Please don’t!”

The two pranksters looked at each other again before bursting into laughter, almost falling to the floor. “We’re just messing with you.”

“We’re happy for you.”

“Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” This prompted another fit of laughter from them.

“May I ask what is so funny?” Said Mihawk.


	13. Home Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to head back to Beach City, its been a long day and everyone needs to rest. When they return, Pilot has something to ask Stevonnie.

Pilot and Peridot turned ready to defend against Mihawk.

Pilot only lowered his fists when he saw his predecessor standing calmly to the side of and the swordsman, the gem followed suit. “I knew you’d beat him!” She exclaimed.

“That’s quite an assumption.” Mihawk stated, the clear edge of threat encouraged the Mahaswarens to give him a wide berth as they approached Stevonnie, checking them for injuries.

Mighty Spark explained, “I managed to snatch the black spindle from him and eventually I got a lucky hit to his face to knock out the rest of Ro-“ he was cut off by a sharp cough from the Pilot who lurched his head towards the fusion. Stevonnie’s vision was currently blocked by Priyanka who was tending a rather large bruise on their shoulder with a first-aid kit from the cheeseburger backpack. “Of the influence that had been manipulating him.”

Mihawk gave Stevonnie a quick glance before getting the doctors attention. “No wounds on the back.”

It was more statement than a question but Priyanka nodded in response.

He started walking back to his castle. “Keep the sword, it doesn’t belong on this battlefield.”

When they felt they were out of sight of the castle, Pilot drew his ship into the universe and they all took off. 

After a few minutes a few of them realized they were circling the island, Doug was the first to ask. “Pilot? Weren’t we going home?”

“The portal is in the middle of densely packed ruins so I can’t land there, at least not without damaging them. So options are to land nearby and spend about half an hour trying to find our way back before another flight to gourmet town or wait a while for the old man to get the strength to open up another portal straight home.”

“Give me 10 minutes.”

Doug nodded then stopped. “Then why did we get on your ship?”

“Safest place to wait. I don’t think anyone’s particularly spoiling for a fight.” He gestured along the room.

Doug saw Amethyst had already fallen back onto the floor, fake sleeping for all she was worth, Peridot was beside her sitting quietly reading over the notes she had made that day. Stevonnie was lent against Doug’s wife who herself looked exhausted. Looking at them Doug realized that he was also tired and that his feet hurt.

The Pilot pressed some buttons and both sets of doors opened along with the hatch on the floor. “If you’d like, there’s a double bed on the right and a single bed on the left. There’s a hammock in the engine room, don’t break it.”

Doug and Priyanka gladly took the offer of a double bed, barely noticing the display read ‘guest bedroom’.

Knowing that the hammock was where Pilot slept and that he probably only offered it to make enough beds for everyone, they headed left. They paused at the door and read the display, ‘Pilot’s bedroom’.

“This is your bedroom?” They asked.

“Yep.”

They examined the bed as they sat on it, it seemed very comfortable. “Why do you sleep in the engine room then!?”

Pilot made an ‘I don’t know’ sound.

Mighty Spark chuckled softly. “He used to sleep in that room when he was younger, one morning I came in and he wasn’t there, after half turning the ship upside down Axia found him on security camera sleeping in front of the engine with only a blanket.”

Pilot groaned with embarrassment.

“A few more evenings of that and we decided we’d have to make his bedroom down there.”

Stevonnie gave a small laugh before finding a button to close the door remotely. “Wake me when we get there.” They closed the door and fell asleep.

After a few minutes Peridot decided to join Amethyst on the floor. Almost the moment she closed her eyes Pilot gently slowed the ship to a stop and half lay down half collapsed on the floor. Mighty Spark stepped over and picked him up. He carried him down to the engine room and placed him in the hammock.

He picked up a stuffed toy weasel. The young kelmepi girl who would become the Pilot had screamed when he had foolishly bought them a toy puppy which he had been forced to lock up in a forgotten corner of a storeroom before getting this. He placed the toy in the hammock.

“I’m not a kid.” Pilot grumbled.

Mighty Spark removed Pilot’s broken helmet and placed it on nearby nightstand. “You sure about this?”

“Provisionally.”

“Get some rest then.” He made his way back to the main deck and set the ship back into its circuit. He felt he could open the portal at that moment, but he left it 10 minutes to give everyone some rest.

Stevonnie awoke to a gentle shaking, they opened their eyes to see a familiar face smiling down at them. “Garnet! How long was I asleep?”

“Only about 20 minutes.”

There attempted to count their existence on their fingers. “I don’t think I’ve been fused this long since the jungle moon.”

“I think Pilot wants you to stay fused for a little longer if that’s okay. He’s on the beach.” She helped them up as they left the bedroom. “By the way, Amethyst suggested something happened with Steven and Connie.”

Stevonnie blushed before deciding that Garnet would be understanding. “I think they’re dating now.”

Garnet half smothered them in her arms. “I’m so happy for you!” She released them and half skipped off the ship. “I look forward to the wedding!”

Stevonnie ran after her. “That isn’t how it works Garnet!”

Standing on the beach where the gems, Mighty Spark and all three of their living parents. In front of all of them was Pilot, his now repaired helmet under his arm. “You feeling better Stevonnie?”

“Much better!”

“Good, because I have something to ask you. As you may have guessed we didn’t go to gloomy island to get swords schematics. It was a test. You passed that test, with flying colors by my judgment.”

“Really! But that humandrill with three swords would have killed me if it hadn’t been for Warp Peridot.” Peridot and Pilot both glanced nervously over to Garnet whose grin suggested she may leap at both or either of them at any moment.

Pilot hoped he was safe long enough to finish what he was saying. “I wasn’t testing your raw power, I was testing your determination and reliability, and you didn’t give up. If you accept it will include hard and complicated training in a great many areas, and many people would give up, I don’t think you will.”

“Accept what?”

“A Pilot can only have one apprentice at a time and it felt wrong to choose between Steven and Connie, you’re the solution.”

Stevonnie stood agape, unsure they had just registered what had been said correctly. “You want me… To be your apprentice.”

“Well you’re a bit too young for me to feel right about asking for definite but how about a provisional arrangement. You train with me and if you ever feel the Pilot is something you don’t want to be, you can change your mind, no pressure.”

They almost answered immediately before seeing their families. “Are you guys okay with this?”

“We already knew.” Priyanka replied.


	14. Devising a Test

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems that everyone apart from Stevonnie was in on Pilot's plan. How is that possible?
> 
> Back at Mighty Spark's cabin, while Steven and Connie were having their moment (see chapter 8), Pilot took the chance to discuss his decision to make the pair his apprentices with their parents and guardians. 
> 
> Mighty Spark still had his doubts.

“You guys take a break while I’m in the house!” Pilot called to the kids as he headed up to Mighty Spark’s cabin. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “I’ve come to a decision!” He announced to no one in particular, as he lowered the blinds. Everyone turned to look at him when he spoke, apart from Peridot who is doing her best to ignore him by staring through a tiny gap in the blinds.

“Any chance you’re going to fill us in?” Amethyst questioned.

For a few moments he didn’t answer, he was still thinking. As he was half way through pulling himself up a chair he stood up and said. “Well before I do anything I should probably get permission from Steven and Connie’s parents.”

“That’s very considerate of you Pilot.” Priyanka said. “Wait, where are you going?”

“I need to talk to Steven’s family as well.” He left for a few moments before coming back in, poking Steven’s earpiece with a tiny screwdriver. “That should do it.” He placed the earpiece on the table and it crackled into life. “Are you receiving me.”

“This is Yellow Diamond, where’s Pink?”

He gave a sigh. “Outside, there’s a swordsman guarding them in the safest territory for miles around, can you put Garnet or Pearl on?”

“Why? What could you possibly have to say to a pearl that you can’t say to a Diamond.”

“I need to find a specific human and if the Topaz and Aquamarine you sent are anything to go by that is a task homeworld gems are abysmal at. You can sit and listen if you like.”

They could hear her grumble inaudibly through the speaker then snap, “Pearl get over here! The not human wants to speak to you!”

“Pilot?” A more friendly voice spoke through the earpiece.

“Hello Pearl, could you find Greg for me?”

“He’s right here, I’ll put him on.”

“All right stay nearby, I need to talk to you as well.”

After a few moments of Greg figuring out how the device worked he was on the line. “Hey Pilot, I just came over to see how long you guys would be.”

“We shouldn’t be too long, but I wanted to ask you something, as well as the gems and Connie’s parents, they’re here with me.”

“Well fire away.”

“I want Steven and Connie to be the next Pilot.” 

This simple statement came with exclamations of shock and surprise from everyone. “What does that even mean!” Priyanka exclaimed.

“If they agree I will train them in things the Pilot needs to know how to do, fly a ship, operate a warp suit, cope in a strange environment, that sort of thing, with Pearl’s help of course. If I ever retire or something happens to me they will become the Pilot.”

“Isn’t that a lot of responsibility for someone their age.” Said Greg

“I agree, but if they become the Pilot it won’t be for quite a few years. I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon.”

“But what about their current responsibilities,” Priyanka interjected. “Will this training interfere with Connie’s school work on top of them both being Crystal Gems.”

“And once we get this mess with White sorted out, Pink will have their duties as diamond to attend to.” Yellow insisted

“School and the Crystal Gems can mostly be worked around and there are several transferable skills, data comprehension, perceptiveness, persuasion, the like. As for Steven being a diamond,” Pilot snorted with a suppressed laugh. “Probably not.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!” She yelled.

Pilot gently released tension on a screw on the earpiece before yelling. “Blue Diamond! Yellow is trying to manipulate Pink’s life again!” He returned to the screw to its original tension as they heard stomps before Yellow was dragged off and they could hear the diamonds bickering in the distance.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Mighty Spark noted.

“Satisfying though.” Pilot replied. “Greg, Pearl! You still there?”

“Just about.” Greg responded.

“So, are you guys all right with me going ahead with my plan?”

“As long as you don’t pressure them to do it.” He answered.

“You’ll have to write down a table for what extra things need teaching.” Pearl added.

“All right!” he looked up from the earpiece. “What about you folks, you’re Connie’s parents after all.”

Doug and Priyanka looked at each other, giving each other a small nod. “I suppose if Connie wants to we have no reason to stop her.” Doug smiled.

“Well that settles it, we’ll head back and ask them when we get to the Temple!”

“Hang on a moment!” Mighty Spark stopped his successor as he had started for the door.

“What?”

“I’m not trying to overrule you, you’re the Pilot now, it’s your decision. But you shouldn’t pick your apprentice just because they’re your friends.”

“Steven and Connie are paragons of goodness and freedom, admittedly both in different ways but what more could you want in a Pilot?”

“I’m not saying their hearts aren’t in the right place. But there are things in the multiverse you can’t just sing too or tell to go away, will they be strong enough to thrive anywhere?”

“With their determination? One day.”

“Show me.”

“What?” Greg exclaimed.

“A test. Show me that they are determined enough to become the guardian the multiverse needs.”

“How do we do that.”

“Gloomy island!” Pilot announced.


	15. Warp Suits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they know of his intentions, Pilot waits with bated breath for Stevonnie's answer. Do they want to be his apprentice? can they handle a future as the Pilot? 
> 
> If they accept they and their constituent parts will have a lot to learn, not least of all how to manipulate the warp. Not even Pilot can express the warp unaided like his predecessors yet, luckily there is technology that acts as a conduit, the warp suit. Luckily he has more than one.

“So then Pilot explained how we take you to that island, give you the responsibility to defend something and we’d watch.” Priyanka finished.

“So, what do you think?” Pilot asked.

Stevonnie tried to answer but the first time they opened their mouth, nothing came out. They tried again. “All right, yes.” Pilot reached out his hand to shake theirs. “But I have a condition, I can’t leave this Earth whilst Homeworld still threatens it. You need to be the Pilot until the earth is safe from White Diamond.” They raised their hand. “Deal?”

Pilot grabbed onto their hand and shook it vigorously. “More than fair!” Everyone apart from Yellow Diamond applauded.

In a blink of his eyes, Pilot was shaking two pairs of hands and Steven and Connie were grinning up at him. “What are we going to learn first!?” Connie asked. “Can we do it now?”

“It’s a bit late!” He laughed looking towards the setting sun.

“Just something quick!” Begged Steven.

Pilot looked towards the parents and guardians before shrugging his shoulders. “Well, not much is quick, but I suppose we could make a start. Amethyst! Can you get some skateboarding supplies, helmets, knee pads, elbow pads that sort of thing, they both need a set!” 

As Amethyst helped the kids find their safety equipment Pilot journeyed into the depths of the ship. When they were finished and fully equipped the Pilot came out holding sets of black ribbons with what appeared to be small silver discs strung out along them. “What are those?” Steven asked.

“Training warp suits!” Pilot threw both handfuls, one at Steven one at Connie. The ribbons seemed to come to life attaching the discs to various parts along their bodies and tightly affixing themselves along their skin and clothes. Notably there was a long ribbon that extended from between the shoulder blades that carried off away into Pilot’s hands with a lot of slack between. “When you’re the Pilot your body will produce functionally infinite amounts of warp energy, since you can’t do that yet, you will borrow my warp energy to help you operate the suit. The suit does not make you move faster. It slows and moves the universe around you, so your first task is to stay still. The sand is pretty soft so it shouldn’t hurt too much if you fall over but everyone should probably stand back.”

When the audience had done so the silver nodes on the training suits glowed blue. Almost immediately Connie zipped forwards almost 10 feet, leaving a blue trail behind her, before landing on her face, Steven seemed to have disappeared leaving a trail that led into the sea where Lapis quickly found him. After the first go and Pilot gave Steven his towel and started to explain what they needed to do they managed to contain their unwanted movements to within squares he drew on the sand.

After about 10 minutes of watching with some combination of amusement and pride Pilot gasped. Connie had been standing still, albeit looking like she was furiously trying to maintain balance, for whole seconds. Connie’s head seemed to snap to look in Steven’s direction. To most of the audience it seemed that Connie then lets out a series of short indecipherable squeaks. Pilot and Steven however were acclimatized to her relatively accelerated voice. “It’s all right Steven! You just have to feel the way everything else is leaning and then lean the other way.”

Steven nodded before immediately (and rather comically) landing on his rear.

“Very good Connie! Once you two can stand casually in these we will move on to actually moving around.”

While everyone else was watching the children get the hang of the strange technology Mighty Spark came up behind Garnet. “You have a burning room right?”

“Yes, you have something to burn.”

“I need to burn this.” He carefully produced a rounded black item, it had a point on either side and a perfectly flat black ring spinning around it. “It’s called a black spindle and I need to destroy it.”

Garnet nodded. “All right, but you need to tell me who it belonged to first.”

Mighty Spark took a deep breath before glancing at the Pilot. “His sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me all these chapters, it has been a fun adventure which I hope was entertaining to you all.
> 
> I hope you will read my next work in this series: Breakfast with Roxillan.


End file.
